With Great Power…
Commentary
By Carlos H. Conde
davaotoday.com
MANILA — I was sitting as a panelist at a forum called “Who’s Afraid of Media Freedom?” yesterday at the Ateneo law school in Rockwell when my cellphone went berserk with text messages warning of an impending police raid of the offices of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. I was stunned. Literally, I felt a chill crawling down my spine. Having no experience with media repression on the scale that my elder colleagues went through during the martial law years, I was actually afraid. Is this it? I asked myself silently. Are they really going to arrest Sheila Coronel et. al.? After them, who was going to be next? (Read Sheila’s account of what happened yesterday.)
I was going to speak after ABS-CBN’s Luchi Cruz-Valdez. While listening to her recount her experience covering the first Edsa, a thought crossed mind: Should I deliver my speech? What if the Arroyo regime would think it is subversive or that it might incite people to rebel?
Former vice president Tito Guingona was seated right next to me. A few minutes earlier, he exhorted the audience to “fight on!” Suddenly, I felt deeply ashamed. Here was this old civil libertarian, still at it, raising hell and battling water cannons — and there I was, actually anxious about the possible consequences of what I was going to say.
In end, I decided I was not going to give this regime the pleasure of intimidating me. So I raised a little hell myself.
Following is my short presentation. (You can listen to it here. Incidentally, Conrado de Quiros discussed the subject of my speech in his column today. You can also listen to the brilliant presentation by veteran journalist Vergel Santos of BusinessWorld and the Center for Media Freedom and Resonsibility.)
While we hear of reports that presumably 1017 might be lifted anytime, this is not consolation enough for us because the threats to free expression and our right to think and speak as freemen do in a free society remain unresolved.